Dalhausser, Rosenthal Take Silver in The Hague

LONG BEACH, Calif. (July 21, 2014) – The U.S. beach team of Phil Dalhausser and Sean Rosenthal, seeded No. 1, took the silver medal on Sunday at the FIVB Grand Slam in The Hague, Netherlands.

Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel, seeded No. 6, beat Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.) in the men’s final, 21-18, 13-21, 15-13 in 59 minutes. With the win, Fijalek and Prudel share the $72,000 first-place prize while Dalhausser and Rosenthal split $52,000. Rosenthal was named the smart Player of the Tournament.

Dalhausser and Rosenthal had won the last two Grand Slam stops in Norway and Switzerland and entered Sunday’s finale with a 20-match winning streak that ended when the Poles commanded the third and deciding set by scores of 7-4 and 12-8. Behind Dalhausser, the Americans rallied to 12-11, but Fijalek and Prudel sided out the rest of the way to win their first gold medal match in four attempts.

Dalhausser said the Polish team “played very well and had some big points in the third set. They also had three net point serves.”

Rosenthal also lauded Fijalek and Prudel by saying: “they're a great team and we got close a lot of times. They had a few more games than we did. I had a lot of shaky passes and a couple of serves coming over. They played great and they deserved to win today.”

Among other U.S. men’s teams competing in The Hague, Ryan Doherty (Toms River, N.J.) and Nick Lucena (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) finished tied for fifth after losing in the third round. John Hyden (Pensacola, Fla.) and Tri Bourne (Aiea, Hawaii) along with Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Casey Patterson (Van Nuys, Calif.) finished tied for ninth after falling in the second round.